Why do dogs maul/kill cats?

Question

Why do some dogs, I know not all dogs maul/kill cats? And why do some cats kill mice? I know and believe animals are not wicked, they do not kill for pleasure, they kill for food or self defense, that has been proven and no one will convince me otherwise, therefore I just don't understand why some pets choose to kill eachother, what is going that we hear of a stray dog or something killing a cat or mauling a child or something?

Answer 1

Animals, regardless of them being our pets, still have a prey drive. It's an innate part of their make-up. Some dogs and cats have a stronger prey drive than others.

Another aspect is the difference in how they assert themselves as the leader. Dogs use force to assert themselves as the dominant one. Cats don't. Cats use physical position -- who is sitting the highest, who is closest to the human owner.

When a dog starts to assert itself as a pack leader with other dogs there may be some fighting involved. If there is resistance between two dogs there may even be a death or serious injury. More often a dog asserts itself, bites the other dog while doing that, and the other dog backs off.

Since dogs and cats speak different languages you could imagine that this process wouldn't work as well. A dog bites a cat, it's a more serious injury. Cat doesn't submit, it fights back because it's under attack by something/someone. Or it tries to run away (which could trigger prey drive). A dog might normally just hold another dog down with a single bite until the dog submits. But a cat is going to be wriggling around trying to get free and the dog could just keep biting to try to get a better hold or make the cat submit. Before you know it there's a cat with fatal injuries.

It's not out of wickedness -- they are different animals with different ways of communicating.

With a strong prey drive, it can be something as simple as cat sees mouse, cat's instinct kicks in and wants to kill the mouse. Mouse might try to play dead and hope it loses interest and a minute later makes a break for it or mouse is a fighter and cat is intent on making the fighting stop.

Related to being a pack leader is how territorial an animal is. You can have what you consider a very sweet dog but if someone tries to even approach your house, your dog might turn into a monster. That's an unstable dog who needs training to understand what is acceptable. But a dog or even a cat who is highly territorial may be more likely to strike out at something entering the territory. An animal can consider a house it's territory or even it's whole neighborhood -- watch dogs on walks and you'll see some peeing every where they can. They're marking their territory and they could be a mile away from home!

It's not only stray dogs that have reports of attacks on children or animals. There are so many factors that can be involved to have one answer for every situation. But it seems like a common thread with attacks on children is that there's a situation where the dog is threatened whether it be a kid swinging a baseball bat around or screaming, running away (like prey), or boldly approaching a strange dog.

Guess there are some things about animals we can't know because we can't know what they're thinking all of the time.

But I think most situations, animal on animal particularly, boil down to some animals having a strong prey drive and the two species having different ways of establishing dominance.

Answer 2

It's the whole hunting instinct for both the dogs to chase cats and for cats to chase mice. I had heard before that when I dog is mauling a person, especially a child, that the sound that the child is making, the screaming and crying, can sound like a small prey that is being killed, so that's what keeps them mauling.

Answer 3

Well actually cats do kill for pleasure...its just their instinct. You can have a fat happy cat that is well feed at home and it will go out all day and hunt and kill. National geographic did a documentary on domestic cats and they killed large amounts of birds, small reptiles and small mammals. They did this study to determine the decline of certain species. You can check it out if you like National geographic video Caressing the tiger.

Answer 4

Because dogs are naturally known to prey on animals such as cats,squirrles even birds.Dogs are generally larger than them and feel a certain supieriority.Also if traind properly they will listen to their owners commands and halt,when told.My dogs are,some pet owners don't have the time to train their pets.

Answer 5

because nibbling takes too much time